old nurse

The best boss I ever had did not put fear into anyone. Whatever he asked out of people he got. If someone did bad, they felt worse that they let him down. He wasn't a buddy to anyone. Had a supervisor that ruled with terror. People did the minimum and started to look for new work.

In regards to Smith, other than sign Sano and trade for Pavano, did he do anything that in the end improved the Twins roster during his tenure?

Yohan Pino

As an opinion on what Ryan may have thought it doesn't need anyone to be fired or retained. If he claims the players underachieved it should be on the players that they underachieved. Nobody ever said it was because of Gardenhire when players have career years, why should it be on him and the staff when they don't?

I though it was a little more obvious that the response I gave you that I had a bit of sarcasm to go with the answer. Poor planning? The free agent pitching thread has been beaten so dead and thin there is nothing left of the horse for the crows to pick at. A little worse was a reasonable expectation for Doumit and Willingam yes, utterly horrid seasons,no. Yes you can claim many saw Plouffe would be what he was. Alternatives? About as viable as hoping last June and July was not a fluke. With what was available to add, and having more of an eye for the future needs with what was subtractable Ryan did what he could do. Ryan could have done better, he could have done worse.

A season of IFS. IF Plouffe plays nearer to the player he was last June and July. If Diamond, Willingham and Doumit perform like last year. If Hicks is league average at hitting. If Worley was the pitcher he was in Philli. If the middle infield becomes functional. If Morneau regains more of his old form. If Correia pitches like normal. If Pelfrey is what he was if NY. If all those ifs were true, the Twins could have been a .500 team. They weren't. I think Ryan hoped the pitchers added and Diamond would be an aggregate league average pitcher. He hoped the players maintained or stepped up their level of play. Dozier has, no one else did. No rookies stepped forward. Hence, the Twins became what they are.

Short but great careers do not get rewarded. Morris was at the top of his game for more years than Nathan and he had trouble getting in. Nathan would need another 5 years of being great. Not going to happen.

What is the goal of the team this year? You want to win games but more importantly you need to see if you can develop everyday players. Dozier, Parmelee, and Colabello in the minors showed the ability to hit very well. At what point do you determine they will not develop further and have a limitation. If they are going to be somewhere on the field of play as a regular they need to play regularly. When they need an off day, it should be against a pitcher they are less likely to do well against, that someone else has a better shot at. The conversation thus far would lead me to believe people don't think they are going to get any better as players than what they are now. Plouffe as a career has hit left handed pitching well enough to have a role somewhere. In terms of time, have Colabello or Parmelee been given that chance? If the answer is yes, then I would ask you do you think their best side warrants big league status? A .750 OPS in a limited role doesn't sound like it would help a team on that needs an above average offense.

Half of the free agents were minor league or low risk contracts. Of the other half, Myers has not contributed much this year, Reynolds was released in August.

Willingham when he came up wasn't very good at hitting right handers. Would have he got better sitting on the bench? The players all mentioned are still developing. Why stunt their growth? Either they are going to develop or you have to get new players. Rigid definition. Platoon has a definition. It is or it isn't.

The idea of platooning is that your LH and RH bat off the bench play the same position. For it to be an effective use of talent and roster space there has to be above average talent. With a roster of 12 position players it would be a luxury having a platoon. This would especially be true if someone played only DH.

Nice piece of work. Up all night? Usually you post around midnight

Cots lists 30 outfielders as free agents for this winter. Hitting with an OPS over .725 would be an improvement over the current situation. 2 throw in minor leaguers might even get you one in trade

In the cases mentioned for platooning I would offer the following advice. Go find a better player. The cases offered are bad vs worse.

So if the team is viewed as non competitive, why would they sign here? Bartolo Colon has career earnings of 75 million. Why would a couple more million with an offer to be traded make the least bit of sense. It doesn't make any sense. Teams don't sign players to trade them. Where do fans get this notion? You can name players traded. Name one signed with the idea they would be traded to a contender if it wasn't working out. Name one who was stockpiled like a brick of gold. Teams trade away the free agents when things don't work during the season, or after if it appears like it is a never will work situation. On the Cubs caravan, Seuvm and Epstien were reported as saying they expected to contend with the additions they made. A rotation like they had, decent position players, it was a believable line. From an interview with an author Dale Sveum says he feels more comfortable heading into his second season as the Cubs manager. Coming off a 101 loss season, he’s got high expectations. “The one thing you hate doing is saying, ‘[finishin] .500 will be good,’ because it’s not good,” Sveum said Wednesday. “It’s not 101 losses, but .500 isn’t getting you to the playoffs. Just getting in the playoffs is satisfactory. … In a perfect world, if [Matt] Garza and [scott] Baker are ready to go Opening Day, its not a bad staff to have [Jeff] Samardzija, Garza and [Edwin] Jackson at the top and the other guys in the four, five spots. Fujikawa would come in the eight inning, Marmol in the ninth, there’s so many things that are so much better going into this season than last year. [Finishing] .500 is, like I said, still not acceptable.” Garza and Baker will both be ready to go in Spring Training but Sveum said the team may take a cautious approach with them to ease them into the regular season. Garza is coming off an elbow injury and Baker is coming back from Tommy John surgery. The Cubs in the playoffs in 2013? That might be hard for some fans to consider but Sveum thinks they have enough firepower if Ian Stewart is healthy, and Nate Schierholtz produces. “You can’t fall victim to, ‘Yeah, we are obviously in a transition in the organization, and we’re trying to get healthy and do all this,’ but don’t fall into the category that we can’t win right now,” Sveum said. “Baseball is a funny thing. Just last year, we close out some games in April and the start of the season is a lot different and you never know what happens after that. You might not have the exact same bullets as the guy actross the street, but all you need are guys to play up to their capabilities and have a starting staff and close out games, and you win a lot of games.”

How can one overgeneralize a generalized statement? The critique is that he is old school. That is an aged based complaint. The complaint is based on what, one off season where he had payroll flexibility? He signed 2 bargain basement free agent pitchers. Judging from the ongoing threads judging last year's free agent pitching his assessments by whatever method worked. He did sign the wrong former Skeeter pitcher to a minor league contract, (Mickey Callaway deserves a coach of the year honor) so Ryan's team didn't do all great work is assessing the talent that was out there. What methods do they use to determine what players to sign? Considering that some of the free agents available had decent years the year before they had to have done some form of projecting. The fans do not know much what goes into the decision making process. So how can you label it old school other than that Ryan is old? True, he doesn't talk metrics. He doesn't talk much specifics on anything that would give you a clue what he thinks. Ryan works more towards long term than short term. This year should be a kick in the head to remind him that free agents plug short term gaps, too.

So you think once you turn a certain age you can't learn new things? Talk about insulting a whole class of people.

A one in 4 chance that the player will play in 30 games for the season. Signing him you will get the back end starter. That was my missed point. Greatness? Maybe very goodness, but maybe not with the way he threw this year.

I do not dislike Gardy, but Holy Cow, you can get one of the two best managers out there. Would that mean the Twins shouldn't sign Hughes?

Hint in the last 3 years he missed half of his team's games while on the dl. You might like that part so you get to see more of an Albers or similar pitcher.

Perhaps the best free agent they could sign is a backup catcher named Joe Girardi.

All of them would be expected to have better years than Hernandez, Walters and DeVries. That it is close that Diamond and Hernandez are having as good of year as most of the pitchers listed is noteworthy, and it is not good for the FA pitchers to be compared to them. Much more was expected.

The quote says near and long term. In solving the club's needs that fit both criteria it would be unlikely that free agency would be a fix. Ashburyjohn had posted the interview. Ryan never said he wasn't going to sign free agents. Their top prospects they would hope to be career Twins. Long term fix for a position when they work out. He later in ashburyjohn's post said that there would be people that they would pursue. Hopefully they have learned the market. The free agent is a short term fix. Look at what is available as a free agent. Someone generally over 30. Not a long term fix in the drug testing era. Not a long term fix. Ryan wants to fix things long term. There are people he will go after. It would be looked at as a short term fix. Willingham was a short term fix until one of the young outfielders were ready. Hopefully he has learned there is little value or gain in signing 5th starters as free agents.

There is a different scouting director. Although some may not believe there ever was a change, there has been a change in GM. I do not know if the scouts are different, I don't keep track of that stuff. Some posts are not so much a defense of someone as it is a counterpoint to something posted that one thinks very little of. There is a difference.